Mad Max was waiting for them on the doorstep. “Dude—” He rushed forward to give Harry a hug that was all arms, boy odor, and limp, unbrushed hair.
This bizarre relationship seemed to operate beyond the boundaries of normal guy friends. Heterosexual or homosexual, Felix didn’t care, but he couldn’t imagine having a friend he wanted to hug. Nor could he imagine ending a phone call, as Harry had earlier, with love you, man. It was hard enough to say I love you to Ella.
Felix unlocked the door, and the boys bolted inside before he’d canceled the alarm. Harry’s bedroom door shut with a slam that said Do not enter, don’t even think about entering unless you know the secret handshake.
The only secrets Felix knew were his own.
He slid the pizza box onto the hand-poured concrete island in the kitchen. Picking up a large pepperoni pizza on the way home had made perfect sense. Although he wasn’t remotely hungry and neither, apparently, was Harry. Maybe the boys would scavenge later.
Time to start on those lists. An organized mind was the key to survival. Lists comforted; lists screamed I am in control. First up, though, call Katherine. Her phone went to voice mail; he didn’t leave a message. He started dialing Robert, who was likely in the office, then changed his mind and sent a text.
Ella had a heart attack. She’s in the CCU at Raleigh Regional. I won’t be in tomorrow.
An immediate reply:
What room? We’ll send flowers. Keep me posted.
He was about to type thank you when his phone rang.
“Hey, Felix,” Katherine said. “I gather you caused quite a scene at the hospital. Has the nursing staff blacklisted you?”
Felix flicked up the entire row of kitchen light switches. A horrible waste of power, but he had a sudden need to flood the house with artificial light. “It’s been a long, hard day, Katherine.”
“Longer and harder for your wife, I can assure you.”
Cradling the phone between his neck and shoulder, Felix tapped his palm. “What did the cardiologist say?”
“He reiterated what happened and said she did great in the cath lab. They put in a stent, which I gather is how they unblock the artery.”
“I know all this. I want—”
“The location of the blockage means she has something called a widow-maker lesion. Basically, she’s pretty damn lucky to be alive.”
Felix’s left hand began to convulse; his wedding ring became a blur of gold.
“Bottom line—big heart attack, and she’s critical but stable,” Katherine said. “They’ll likely keep her in the CCU for the next twenty-four hours, and then move her onto the cardiac floor with something called telemetry monitoring.”
“What’s her prognosis? How long will they keep her?”
“I couldn’t weasel much out of the doc on either front. He was annoyingly vague, despite my best romance novelist charm.”
Felix nearly said, I thought you wrote porn for a living.
“She could be here for up to five days—it all depends. As for big-picture thinking, if she learns to manage her risk factors and does well in cardiac rehab, she’ll likely be fine, yada, yada, yada. I get the impression these heart docs don’t like to commit. But the point is that she’s a survivor. That’s what’s important. Oh, and the cardiologist assigned to her will be here at nine thirty in the morning,” Katherine continued. “You might want to arrive in time for that. Without Harry. Ella is adamant that he’s not to return to the hospital.”
“Harry’s going to school tomorrow. His choice,” Felix said.
“How’s he doing?”
“Max is sleeping over. They’re currently barricaded in the Bat Cave.”
Katherine gave a hollow laugh. “How are you doing?”
“Not well. You?”
“Total shit. I’m on deadline but I can’t write. My thoughts aren’t lining up. Know what I mean?”
Actually, he did.